The Flash
26 years ago - Wally West is born.
14 years ago - 12-year-old Wally is in a lab accident that replicates the Flash's powers. At the suggestion of his aunt Iris West, Barry Allen takes him on as his apprentice & sidekick Kid Flash. He gets to meet the original Flash, Jay Garrick.
13 years ago - 13-year-old Wally & Barry Allen team up with Leonard Snart to stop Eobard Thawne when he begins his takeover of the Rogues by killing Lisa Snart & Sam Scudder.
12 years ago - 14-year-old Wally joins the original Teen Titans. He & Barry Allen are able to seperate Albert Desmond from the philosopher's stone. they are attacked by a newly awakened Robert Turowski who is able to manipulate the Speed Force directly. He breaks Wally's leg and captures Barry, intent on using him as in infinite power source. With his new understanding of the Speed Force, Wally is able to heal his leg, and tap into the Speed Force to stop the Turtle and freeze him again, sending him to Iron Hights, where he is secured against any Speed Force access.
11 years ago - 15-year-old Wally & Barry Allen fight against Gorilla Grodd's invasion. They are assisted by the Rogues once they realize Grodd's plan. He first befriends Hartley Rathaway.
10 years ago - 16-year-old Wally is invited to join Raven's new Teen Titans. Clifford Devoe stages a crimewave in Central City using his mind control technology, looking to permanently upload his consciousness into his computers. He falls into a coma when he is stopped by Wally & Barry Allen. When Albert Desmond is overwhelmed by the philosopher's stone and again becomes Doctor Alchemy, Wally & Barry use Desmond's formula to destroy it & free him. Evan McCulloch arrives as the new Mirror Master, confronting Barry & Wally.
9 years ago - 17-year-old Wally is passed the mantle of the Flash when Barry Allen dies saving Iris West's life from Eobard Thawne. He is comforted at his funeral by Hartley Rathaway. He settles in Keystone City to begin college, where he dates Frances Kane, nicknaming her Frankie.
8 years ago - 18-year-old Wally first meets Linda Park, and befriends Hunter Zolomon. The Teen Titans are infiltrated and destroyed. He defeats Paul Booker and sends him to prison.
7 years ago - 19-year-old Wally & Artemis Crock stop Joar Mahkent & Leonard Snart's battle in Keystone City. She chooses to retire to raise her son. Wally's girlfriend Frankie Kane begins working with the Rogues. Her powers overwhelm her, allowing her Magenta persona to take over. He ends Barry Allen's deal with Leonard Snart, bringing in the Rogues. Kobra attempts to move into the power vaccum left behind by the Rogues, but Wally takes their organization apart.
6 years ago - 20-year-old Wally confronts Clifford Devoe's digital avatar at it achieves consciousness and begins taking over systems in Central City. He is able to awaken his own body, and is suddenly slowed by his own weakened neurochemistry, allowing Wally to disconnect him. When Hunter Zolomon is injurred during Devoe's attack, Wally refuses to replicate his accident to give him speed force powers. Hunter tries to use Eobard Thawne's cosmic treadmill, resulting in a temporal explosion that uncouples him from time. He tries to make Wally suffer to force him to be a better hero, but Wally manages to freeze him in his own time loop. He is first assisted by newly-empowered Jesse Chambers. Hartley Rathaway's first symphony is played by the Keystone Symphony Orchestra. He comes out publicly as a former Rogue.
5 years ago - 21-year-old Wally joins the Justice League in the aftermath of Superman's death. He meets Bart Allen and helps him bleed off his excess speed force powers, introducing him to Jay Garrick. He is challenged by Axel Walker, the new Trickster. When Gorilla Grodd's forces attack Gorilla City he is contacted by Solovar. With the help of Nnamdi, Giganta & Wonder Woman, they overthrow Grodd who is imprisoned within the city. He & Roy Harper help Artemis Crock track down her father Crusher Crock when he attempts to kidnap her son.
4 years ago - 22-year-old Wally joins the reformed Titans, and marries Linda Park. Dick Grayson is his best man, & Hartley Rathaway is a groomsman. Albert Desmond is released from prison. He volunteers to help Wally, becoming one of his closest allies. Tony Woodward gains his synthetic metal body and goes on a rampage as Girder until Wally stops him. He fights the Parademon wave invasion in Metropolis with the Justice League, where he knocks Killroy unconscious.
3 years ago - 23-year-old Wally survives the attack on the Justice League by the White Martians, and becomes a member of the Watchtower. Clifford Devoe assembles a new team of Rogues. To stop him Wally reaches out to the original Rogues, building a new deal similar to the one they once had with Barry Allen.
now - 26-year-old Wally West runs directly into the Speed Force to outrun time itself to save Linda Park from Hunter Zolomon,
using her as a lighting rod to ground himself and return. The trauma triggers her labor, and their twin children Irey West & Jai West are born. Wally stays on earth while the Watchtower goes to space to save Clark Kent & Lois Lane from Warworld and joins Dick Grayson's new Watchtower.
using her as a lighting rod to ground himself and return. The trauma triggers her labor, and their twin children Irey West & Jai West are born. Wally stays on earth while the Watchtower goes to space to save Clark Kent & Lois Lane from Warworld and joins Dick Grayson's new Watchtower.
The Flash is a benchmark, tent pole DC Character. The big three are definitely Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but the Flash is easily number four, and arguably is even more widely known and understood because he has such a simple, pure concept. This character is fast. Done. Never mind that the character of the Flash has one of the greatest ongoing legacies in comics, that by exploring the myriad applications of his single power he unlocks a gigantic toolbox of powers, and that he's almost single-handedly responsible for the seat-of-your pants sci-fi whimsy that permeates the fabric of DC. He's a remarkably important character.
Recent comics have featured the return of the original silver-age Flash, Barry Allen. This might be a controversial change, but we've chosen to remove Barry Allen's return and keep Wally West, one of best superheroes ever, as our Flash.
Recent comics have featured the return of the original silver-age Flash, Barry Allen. This might be a controversial change, but we've chosen to remove Barry Allen's return and keep Wally West, one of best superheroes ever, as our Flash.
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Wally West's Comic HistoryOf the many kid sidekicks in the silver age of DC Comics, Wally West is easily the one that followed most closely in his mentor's footsteps. The original Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, had a lot of time travel and reality-jumping in his stories. When the entire DC Universe was rewritten in the original Crisis, the death of Barry Allen was one of the true defining moments in the history of DC. Wally became the very first sidekick to actually step up and take over the role of his mentor's role.
And BOY did he own it. Wally was the Flash during two of the greatest runs the character has ever had; written by Mark Waid & Geoff Johns. He was depicted as having greater mastery over the speed force than any speedster in history thanks to his experience using it. Barry Allen returned during the Final Crisis in 2008 thanks to editorial decree by DC President Dan Didio, and Wally essentially became a casualty of the New 52. Multiple attempts to bring him back have happened, but we've never really seen the classic Mark Waid Wally again. |
The Case for Wally WestSo why use Wally West as the Flash instead of Barry Allen? Wally West's tenure as Kid Flash lasted 26 years in real time, from his introduction in 1959 to taking over as the Flash in the pages of the original Crisis in 1985. He then served as the Flash for a further 23 years, until the return of Barry Allen in the pages of Final Crisis, with barely a year off when Bart Allen took over as the Flash after Infinite Crisis in 2006. During that time, he was a part of two of the greatest superhero teams in comics history: the Marv Wolfman/George Perez Teen Titans and the Grant Morrison/Howard Porter Justice League. Virtually all the ideas that make the character of the Flash who he is are taken from Wally West's career. Meanwhile, Barry Allen was the Flash for a slightly longer time, 29 years from his 1956 debut to his death in 1985, but a huge preponderance of that time was spent in a milieu of silver age ridiculousness. Barry was a part of the Satellite Era Justice League, which gives him a strong sense of place and purpose, but his death is also an extremely important part of the history of that team and of the DC universe in general.
Ultimately, it's about understanding what stories serve the larger tapestry of DC the best. Barry's death is huge, and Wally's stepping into the role of the Flash and making it his own is a facet of the DC timeline whose importance can't be overstated. In a whole world of legacy characters, Wally was the first and the most successful. To properly tell the story of the Flash, Wally needs to be the man in the costume. |
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Our Wally West StoryThe thing that makes the story of Flash (any Flash) complicated is the preponderance of dimension hopping and time travel. Most of the multiverse weirdness of DC that makes it impossible for newcomers to read all started in the pages of the Flash. In fact, it's part of the fun of the current Flash TV series; it's leaning heavily on the wackadoodle Silver Age sci-fi fudgery.
So; step one to crafting our version of Wally West's Flash is to strip as much of that away as possible. We're leaning much more heavily on Mark Waid's genius run with the character. One of the best things he did was to take the Barry's completely nonsensical rogues gallery and craft them into the Rogues, a organized group of legitimately dangerous enemies. Suddenly, Wally has a very well-defined measuring stick where we can see exactly how successful he is at taking over the role of his mentor and making it his own. Another change to Wally's story is to make the transition between his career as Kid Flash and his Mark Waid-inspired Flash career happen much sooner. The comics featured a protracted period of depression, and then a role as a rich playboy before he found his footing as the blue-collar hero he is today. Wally studies criminology, but it serves him primarily in his role as the Flash. |
Wally West's CostumeThe Flash probably stands out among superheroes by having perhaps the single most unchanged costume in his entire history. There have been practically no changes at all, other than small flourishes from artist to artist. In fact, when Wally first became Barry's sidekick his original costume wasn't the yellow hair-revealing suit we now think of as Kid Flash, but an exact replica of Barry's red costume. That's how iconic the look is.
Generally speaking, Wally and Barry's costumes have three features that differentiate them. first there's the shading; Wally's suit is generally a darker red with more pronounced blacks. Second is the lighting belt. Barry's belt was a single lighting bolt that went across his waist while Wally's features two bolts that met in the middle. Third, Wally's mask was often (but not always) drawn with white pupil-less eyes, suggesting that the costume had lenses. Which it absolutely should. A lot of the qualities of the Flash's costume have been applied to Barry Allen's post-Flashpoint costume now that he's back in the role, but Wally did them first. Similarly, the visual of lightning bolts arcing away from the yellow in his costume is a regular way to show the speed force effect when the Flash is running originated with Wally. I should add... there are some variations of the character where he (and his aunt Iris) are African American? That's fine. As long as he has the personality I recognize, you can draw him with whatever ethnicity you want. |
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Wally West's FutureAccording to our timeline, Wally's current status is as a member of the new Watchtower team. While several members of the original Watchtower team have gone into space to save Superman, Wally stayed on Earth specifically because he and his wife Linda just had their twins... and of course when his very good friend Dick Grayson creates a new team, he is one of the first people who answer his call.
As we move into his future one of the most important new story developments will be the fact that Wally & Linda are now parents. In the comics Irey & Jai are pretty quicky rapid-aged up to about 8 years old, which we won't be doing, but we do love the idea of watching them grow up and becomes heroes in their own right. In the meantime, Wally stands out as one of the only classic sidekicks to really step up and take over the role and make it his own. At this point he's one of the most skillful, experiences, and powerful superheroes in the game. |
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